What an exciting time to be a member of Associated Builders and Contractors! This year, ABC celebrates its 75th anniversary — 75 years of building America the Merit Shop way. Now over 23,000 members strong in 67 chapters nationwide, ABC wants the ABC story told, shared and remembered.

Before looking at what’s next, it’s important to understand where we’ve come from. In 1950, seven men met to organize an association that would promote and protect a new way of doing business in the construction industry. Three nonunion general contractors, one nonunion subcontractor, one union subcontractor, a nonunion homebuilder and an architect/developer started ABC. ABC’s four founding principles, authored by John Trimmer, ABC’s first chief executive officer, may be summarized as follows:

• Construction contracts should be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder through fair and open competition, regardless of union or nonunion affiliation.
• Employers have rights that must be respected, including policies and procedures intended to promote efficiency and productivity.
• Employees have rights that must be respected, including the right to join or not join a union, and should be rewarded based on their skills and merit.
• Discrimination based on race, color, nationality, sex, religion or creed is contrary to the spirit of our country and harmful to our nation both morally and economically.

That’s it. And that’s what still makes us great today.

From the beginning, ABC was open to all, whether general contractor or subcontractor, associate or supplier, union or nonunion, and without regard to race, ethnicity or gender. The only requirements are unwavering commitment to creating and preserving open competition and free markets and dedication to promoting and rewarding excellence in performance — that is, merit.

ABC had a record year in 2024 — six years of year-over-year membership growth, record amounts raised for ABC PAC to support Merit Shop candidates, and, separately, for FEA to advocate for policies that support ABC’s founding principles.

Record participation in STEP,^® ABC’s industry-leading health and safety management system, and record levels of workforce training via more than 1,000 unique point-of-entry programs across the country.

This year, ABC will continue to raise the bar in all areas of performance. But ABC will also remember the sacrifices of all those who worked so hard to get us where we are today for 75 long years.

Congratulations, ABC, on 75 years of building America! Just imagine what we’ll do in the next 25.